Have you ever gone out and splurged on a significant number of calories on fast food, only to feel like you’re hungry again 40 minutes later? Well, you’re not alone—numerous studies look into this phenomenon, like this Yahoo! News piece that delineates what happens to folks an hour after eating a Big Mac.
Initial bites of fast-food offerings can raise people’s blood sugar “to abnormal levels” which then causes consumers to develop a dependency on food akin to “taking a drug like cocaine and raises the likelihood of compulsive eating.”
So, why do you start to feel hungry again? That’s because what often occurs when one consumes a calorie-dense meal is a person’s body “bring[s] down [their] glucose levels” which, in turn, causes a person to want to eat more.
TikToker @nonathanok appears to have had this same response to eating fast food in a video they posted where they question why they never feel full from eating McDonald’s. However, they mentioned that this feeling is starkly different from when they eat at another chain, like Popeyes.
@nonathanok Its really strange #fyp #foryoupage ♬ original sound – NuNathan
“Can someone explain to me why when I eat McDonald’s I don’t feel full?” the creator asks in the clip. “I eat Popeyes and I feel like I’ve eaten something. I eat McDonald’s I don’t even feel sluggish, I feel a void in my stomach like I haven’t eaten anything at all. I don’t know what it is, can someone explain it to me?”
His response to the different fast foods could boil down to the macro-nutrients in each of the chain’s respective offerings. Let’s take Popeyes’ three-piece handcrafted chicken tenders, which have a nutrition summary as follows, as per Verywell Fit:
- Calories: 445
- Fat: 21 g
- Saturated Fat: 9 g
- Carboyhydrates: 29 g
- Sugar: 0 g
- Protein: 38 g
The Big Mac’s macro-nutrients, however, are:
- Caloried: 590
- Fat: 34 g
- Saturated Fat: 11 g
- Carbohydrates: 46 g
- Sugar: 9 g
- Protein: 25 g
Based on the information in the Yahoo! News article, as well as discussions about the human metabolic response to maintaining insulin spikes, the reason why the TikToker may feel better when eating from Popeyes than, say, McDonald’s, is that he’s eating foods with significantly more protein—around 30% fewer carbs, and zero to no sugar when compared to Mickey D’s offerings.
Healthline reports that “protein is by far the most filling” of nutrients “because [it] reduces your level of the hunger hormone ghrelin.” In short, if you want to feel like you aren’t throwing food into the “void” of your stomach while consuming calories, it would probably be best to eat more protein.
It seems some viewers felt similarly to @nonathanok when they ate McDonald’s as well.
As one user wrote, “I eat McDonalds and feel more starved then before i ate it.”
Another commenter remarked that they were raised by their parents to believe McDonald’s was effectively designed to keep its customers craving more of its wares.
“My parents always told me that’s its supposed make you wanna buy more,” they claimed.
Someone else agreed that Popeyes probably made him feel better because he was probably consuming more protein, stating, “Popeyes = Mostly chicken = Protein = Feel full / Satiated.”
One user wrote a comment that seems to be in line with what Science Alert says about the digestive cycle of consuming McDonald’s meals—it could take the human body up to three days to absorb it.
“Omg I’ve felt this way my whole life about mcDs,” they said. “It’s like the food is sitting in my stomach but it doesn’t register as full to me.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to McDonald’s via email and @nonathanok via TikTok comment.
